The Waldren Studios: Images of Nova Scotia 1870 – 1940

Dalhousie University Archives is the owner of a fascinating collection of 45,000 glass plate, film negatives, and prints from the Waldren Studios of New Glasgow and Antigonish. The Archives has made this rich collection accessible online.

The majority of the photographs are in the form of glass photonegatives. Approximately 90% of these are portraits, nearly all of which are identified and dated (the subject in this photo, dated 1895, is Mrs. E. Storey of Halifax). Many of the remaining photos are local scenes, a few of which were taken in New Glasgow before the fire in 1874 which devastated the town. The photos show coal mining, shipbuilding and other local industries in action. Portraits of family groups, sports teams, social clubs and school groups are also well represented.

Comments

An invaluable resource for those of us researching the Pictou County area! I have used this site since its beginnings. Only a small portion of the collection is on line and I live over 3000 kms away and cannot personally visit the archives. I find myself wishing with every visit, that a way could be found to get this project moving again. If I lived close by I would volunteer!

Thanks Allison! We’re happy to hear you’ve found the Waldren Collection useful. It’s been a while since we’ve uploaded new scans but we have been busy behind the scenes describing more of the photographs and adding to our database. We now have over 50,000 images described! Hopefully we can begin uploading more scans soon.

So, we are renovating our attic and came across a photo from the Waldren Studios. It’s of a middle aged lady with a big black hat, white frilled blouse and long black pleated skirt, standing next to an old chair. We just started looking into it because it was kind of intriguing, seeing as we live in Newfoundland and our families have lived in this house since the early 1900s.

Hello…are there names to go along with the over 50,000 images you have? I hope to find some of my grandfather’s parents, Eli Perreault and Mary Jane Charpentier, of Tracadie, and Havre Boucher, NS. Thank you!

Hi, we have a large framed picture of two moose” locked in death” by Waldren New Glasco NS copy right 4971. Just wondering if you would have any information on this picture.
Thank you Craig Wilson and Bernadine Parsons.

Hello, thank you for your inquiry. We have the negative of this picture in the Waldron collection, but we unfortunately do not have any further information about the picture. To speak with the Archives directly, you can contact them at archives@dal.ca